Optical interconnect technology has been successfully implemented in long distance telecommunications, in local area network communication systems, in computer-to-computer, and board-to-board interconnections. The complexity and speed of electronic integrated circuit devices such as microprocessors continue to increase at a very high rate. However, the input and output (I/O) capability of these devices has not been able to scale at the same rate, because of the existing limitations in electronic packaging and integrating of these devices. Also, the current technologies of integrating large arrays of opto-electronic devices with electronic integrated circuit devices require bottom emitting/detecting of a light beam, and these methodologies are generally not scalable for a wafer-scale fabrication and/or integration of both emitters and detectors.
Therefore there is a need for a method of integrating an opto-electronic device with an electronic integrated circuit device for a scalable wafer-scale fabrication, and at the same time providing a large-scale I/O capability to an electronic integrated circuit device.